Howdy y'all and welcome back to MotoSport.com Gear Head weekly observations! This is the amazing Gear Head Ryan Roberts back at it with all the takes from Glendale Arizona Round 6 of Monster Energy AMA Supercross!
Ken Roczen had an amazing ride going wire to wire to win this week in Glendale. This week had so much promise looking at the track map this week, but alas, the racing ended up being pretty much one lined and very fast. I am always so pumped to see Kenny win a race since it doesn't happen all the time, and even he admits it doesn't happen often anymore. When the gate dropped and he got the hole shot, I thought Jason Anderson or Aaron Plessinger would really give him a run for the lead, but no one was ever close enough to show him a wheel. AP went down early and Anderson admitted that the pace they were going was very quick and he didn't have anything for Kenny. Jett Lawrence had a mediocre start and worked his way up to third, passing Eli Tomac late.
This race was one of the races that I really wanted a fast forward button. Once the start hit and we were a few laps in, there was really nothing going on worth noting. Jett made a couple passes; AP went from 19th to finish 10th after he went down so there was some passing. The track was so promising but just did not develop into a real raceable track. Jason Thomas on the PulpMx recap show stated that the bend in the rhythm section was what really drove everyone into one line and I trust his take on this. Eli Tomac recovered from his brutal round in Detroit and ended up fourth. I have no idea what is going on with Eli, but I think it is fair to say that he hasn't fully recovered from his ACL tear last year. The sand section never appeared to give anyone any problems and was essentially a straight away once it had a few laps on it. I am definitely not saying I have all the answers to fix everything, but hopefully in two weeks at Dallas they have a better track.
On the 250 side, R.J. Hampshire took the win followed by Levi Kitchen and third place was Jo Shimoda. R.J. actually did not go full R.J. mode and rode smart to take the win. Jordon Smith was the one who went full R.J. and crashed twice and caused him to finish fourth on the night. Jordon and R.J. have been in this series for so long you would think they both know how you must be steady to win the series but they both seem to think the series is won each round. Levi Kitchen seems to be the rider that is willing to take the win if it is available and then if it isn't, settle for second or third place. Levi has a 4-point lead heading into a 5 week break for the 250 West series and if things stay like this with Jordon and R.J. steadily throwing away podiums and wins, Levi will cruise into his first championship, and I am here for it. Garrett Marchbanks got fifth but if he ever gets a start, he can get a podium. With tracks like this though, and we have had several like it this year, you can't get tenth place starts and expect to get a podium. Let's hope Garrett gets things figured out.
That is it for round 6 of the AMA Monster energy Supercross series. This is your favorite Gear Head Ryan Roberts checking out and remember kids, if you need anything for any bike, dirt or street, ATV, UTV, just hit up any Gear Head at MotoSport.com and we will get you hooked up!
